Improved artificial fuel



. able those skilledin the art to practice it.

- suitable for transportation andus'e.

"It is well known that in the operation of v mining coal vast quantitiesor coal-dust and generally of the i-cry best of acid, free from slate,but is of no use inthc common stoves and furnaces; because it is; toofine to burn freely, itheving'a. tendency to smother a coalfire whenthrown upon it. it it conldbe formed into lumps or cakespossessing-density and tenacity enough to bear transportation and toburn w thout disintegration, such material "duce a new and t alunblefuel out of materials c usists.

' coal pest from which the fibrous or uudecom- TATTES NITE ' IMPROVEDARTIFICIAL Fug-it.

" Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 48.695, dated August2, 1864; v

To all whom it may cmtcem:

Be it known that I, H. S. LUCAS, of Chester, in the county of Hempdenand State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Fuel and I dohereby declare that the following isa'description'of myinvention'suflicieut to en- 'My invention relates to the preparation offuel from coal and peat; and it consists in the combination together ofpeat in a finely-di vided condition end'pulrerized coal, these two Icomponents being' thoroughiy mixed and compressed, so as to be formedinto cakes orlumps fine coal collect, which are thrown aside as useless;such throwing aside being also in it-r self"ex pen'sive, us'the saidfine coal has to be removed from the vicinity of the screening apparatusto prevent it from accumulating and becoming an obstructionThis-materiel is would pIssess value as a Iuel. It is also well. knownthat there exist on the lines of many of the railroads of the countryvast peat-holds, Pent is but little used use fuel, because of its bulkand the diiiicnltyoi dryingand compressin it.

gene purpose of my invention is to bring these two substances together,and by intiumtely mixing, nndcompressing them to pro-' which are nowconsidered as: comparatively worthless; end it is in this that myInvention t consists, further, in combining with fine posed vegetablematters have been removed;

In compressing pent to extract the moisture therefroinmuch of thedificulty' in bringing it to a thoroughly dry state arises from the fee:that the fibers of the undecomposed portions consist of vegetable tubesor vessels containing water, which-tubes, surrounded by elastic matter,are hard to crush. Therefore by first extracting such fibers and thenmixing the line coal and peat and compressing them together I obtain astill more valuablefuel.

In carrying out my invention the peat may be first reduced in atriturating-machine to a pulpy mass and then mixed with the coal-dust.and the homogeneous mixture compressed and formed into cakes; or thepeat may be pol esized end partially dried before being combinei withthe coal; but in cithercasethemoisture from the peat, being of aglutinous cheractfr,

will serve, when the pest and coal are cori1? pressed together, tocement the two ingreif dient's into one solid mass possessingv thereq.-.

duced by me to possesssdvantogesover either; of theme Beat, in itself;when properly dried, 2 possesses only half the heating-power of cool;

and the combination of pulverized substances by the aid of resinousmatter is too ex ensiv while the fuel rocesses dengerousou account ofits. liability to spontaneous ignition; By my production a perfectlysafe, and un'o'hjectionable fuel is produced at a low cost and in iconvenient form for use.

What I- claim is-- 1. A fuel produced by combining and comi? pressingfine coal end peat, substantially as .seti'orth.

7 k r 2.1a a. fuel media from coal and neat: co'm.

binefi, the employment of pest from which the nndecomposed portion hasbeen artiflcialiy removed.-

.7 5* HEMAN Si LUCAS. Witnesses:

, E. D. Goons JomrB. 'lsrcre

